Clean Sweep: Aesop + Marimekko’s Limited-Edition Beauty Collaboration

If there’s one thing more quintessentially Finnish than Marimekko—the Helsinki-based design house famous for splashing its exuberant prints onto sundresses, espresso cups, and even fabric-covered notebooks—it may be the country’s bathing culture. “Almost every home in Finland has a sauna,” explains Marimekko creative director Minna Kemell-Kutvonen. Summer cottages are often equipped with their own lakeside bath house for refreshing dips between steam sessions; although in the winter, Kemell-Kutvonen adds, some Finns simply “go rolling in the snow.”

Now the company is taking its love of the Nordic tradition one step further. “Our designers were inspired by sauna culture as a source of well-being and health, the relaxed feeling you get from it, the particular scents you associate with the surrounding woods,” says Kemell-Kutvonen of teaming up with Aesop, the renowned Australian beauty brand, to capture the essence of the steam-cleansing ritual in a pair of plant-based body products this month.

Even their aromatic scent—a blend of fir needle, sage leaf, and pine essential oils—pays tribute to the natural Finnish landscape. And while the chic recyclable brown jars are definitively Aesop’s, Marimekko has lent its black-and-white Vellamo print to the labels and accompanying cotton pouch. The signature pattern, which was originally conceived as a whimsical interpretation of flowing water, will also appear on a selection of Marimekko summer totes made for holding sauna essentials like robes, towels, and bench covers. We predict a wait list.